My babies are growing up . .

We've had two very big milestones in the Vaughn family this past week. Brady has started walking, and Tyler graduated from Kindergarten! I've been a little on the "mushy" side . . . tearing up really easy and thinking about their little lives.

Brady could be my last baby - might not be if the Lord decides otherwise, but as far as Donny and I know, he's the last little Vaughn boy to be the baby in our family. I've tried to hold onto him being a baby, and he's just trying so hard to grow out of this age! He's growing faster than the other boys (and that's a big statement if you remember Tyler's place on growth charts), talking sooner, interacting with his brothers quicker - everything faster except for motor milestones! That was the one area I could still claim him as an "infant" until this last week. It just makes him look so big to be toddling around the house. He is LOVING it, too! I love the little squeal he lets fly as he wobbles around - it is very cute. I love that Tyler and Colby exclaim, "Look, Mom!! Brady is WALKING!!" every time they see him take some steps - kinda like they hadn't told me a thousand times throughout the day already! They are his biggest cheerleaders - encouraging him, praising him - I love seeing their support of their baby brother.

But I'm a little bit sad, too, when I see him waddle around . . he's not the small little newborn I loved holding anymore for sure. I loved Brady as a little baby, and I absolutely love Brady as this toddling little boy! I guess I'll just keep loving him at whatever stage he's at . . .and I think he'll always be my little baby boy.
Brady as a sweet little newborn . .




Tyler's graduation was such a fun celebration for our family. We didn't know if Tyler would even be appropriate for Kindergarten this time last year, but thankfully, HEB has a wonderful program called Blended-K that was the perfect fit for our Tyler man. It was a regular kindergarten classroom with 4 or 5 kiddos that had special education needs like Tyler in it. There were two teachers - one regular ed and one special ed - plus an aid in the classroom. I can't do justice with words to describe what an incredible year this has been for Tyler. He blossomed so much socially, emotionally, as well as academically. His teachers described him as "the poster child for blended K". He was in one of the top reading groups for his class. None of the administrators who came to visit the class could pick Tyler out as one of the "special ed" kids. He made great friends, he excelled in math, the list goes on and on. We are just so very thankful to the Lord for the work He continues to do in Tyler, but also grateful for the staff that blessed Tyler's life this past year. I think that is what made me especially "mushy" this past week . . .our whole family has just been so blessed by those 3 women, plus the speech and occupational therapist who have loved on Tyler since he was 3 years old. God is so very good to give my children exactly what and who they need every step of the way.

We had our annual ARD meeting last week as well, which included going over all new testing and discussing Tyler's placement for next year. He's doing so good . . it was neat to sit in a room full of adults who work with Tyler daily and here the positive things they had to say about him. Attention is still a major hurdle, and speech and language skills are still a struggle, but man, the improvements are amazing! He'll be going to a new elementary - our home campus. He's been at his current school since he was 3 enrolled in various programs, so leaving this comfot zone is hard for me. I have a feeling it won't be very difficult for Tyler, but I'm struggling with the thought of all new staff, teachers who don't know Tyler, etc. Donny and I prayed over this one - we really wanted to be transferred permanently, and petitioned for it, but it was denied. God's will - not our's - be done! I'm sure He has great plans in store at our new campus, and I look forward to being involved with him there.


I think I could go on a long, long time pondering the life of any of my sweet boys, but I'll stop for now. They are all three in the living room with Donny right now loving playing with a cool race track they got last Christmas. Boy stuff. I kinda think it's pretty cool, too, though, so I think I'll go join them!

Mother's Day, Ninja Turtles, and Jock Jams

Random title, I know. I've just had a few different "events" in our world here that I wanted to document and am not very good at combining things to make a catchy title!


We have a new fun family activity that the boys and I have been enjoying. . . dancing to music from Donny's 90's "Jock Jams" CD. My two big boys are getting some pretty fancy moves on them - I keep wondering, "where in the world have they learned this??" This dance impaired Mama is very impressed, though! Brady tried really hard to copy them - bouncing and trying some fancy foot work. Hard to keep up when you can't even walk yet! I have memories of dancing to MC Hammer's "Whoop, there it is" (or whatever it's called) in my college dorm room, so it's funny to me to see my children bustin' a move to it with me umpteen years later! Eek!






I had such a nice Mother's Day weekend. Donny is very good to pamper and try to make my "mommy work load" as minimal as possible on Mother's Day, and I appreciate that. My kids were super sweet to me, and my favorite part of the day was going to dinner Sunday night with women from my Care Group at Fresco's and then to Starbucks for some more chatting. We make sure we don't go home until Daddy's have the kids nicely tucked into bed for the day! Our care group has been doing this for several years now, and it's one of our favorite get together times of the year! The women go out together while the Daddy's get together at a home with the kids and play. In June, we'll switch and the men will do something activity related, like bowling or something while the women get together with all the kiddos. The guys never get why we just go to dinner and "talk". Why don't we do something more fun like them? Oh, but what a blessing it is to "just talk" with these women with no interruptions of children needing their food cut, a bandaid for a boo-boo, praise for something cool they are doing, or intervention for a "dispute"! I absolutely 100% love being a mommy to my 3 boys, but I can tell you that Mother's Day supper is one of my favorite meals of the year!! Thanks to all our sweet Daddy's who bless us with this uninterrupted time. Sure do love you, dear.



And the Ninja Turtles. Thanks to my sweet friend, Beth Plemons, my two oldest children are now enthralled with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I think they came out sometime when I was in elementary or Jr. High? Not sure, but I vaguely remember them. I was too busy reading Janette Oke books to notice, I'm sure. They went to Cal Plemons bday party on Saturday, had so much fun, and got these cool Ninja "masks" and "swords" (pool noodles) that they have been playing with ever since. They just HAD to have them in one Mother's Day picture on Sunday! So, I agreed, but made us take one WITHOUT the gear as well! Cute to document this little phase, though (it is a phase, right??). Cute boys . . .

From a prejudiced mom . .

I just love these beautiful boys! We took pictures at the Gaylord Texan hotel last week, which I've decided is about the best place for lighting for pictures for us non-photographer types who like beautiful pictures of our kids but don't want to pay oodles to get them done (That is a very big run on sentence, but I'm not sure how to fix it . .. oh well). I just had to show off my precious gifts . .